There’s no denying the fact that the connected car is one of the hottest topics in the telecommunications and automotive industries. Although within the connected car topic there are a great many sub-topics that still require discussion in order to reach an appropriate outcome. For example, questions such as:
• What is a connected car? Many definitions have been offered – even by RCR Wireless News – but the industry has to yet to agree on a standard definition.
• How large and in what timeframe is the business opportunity for the connected car? Projections range greatly across this spectrum along with timelines for the functionality that promises to make the connected car and autonomous driving growth projections come true.
• When talking to end users, the connected car topic varies even more as to the definition and on what services they would actually spend money. This is as opposed to expecting an OEM to provide services as part of the car purchase.
• Will there be an intersection between the telecommunications and automotive industries to enable the connected car, and at what level is it already happening?
• How is the telecommunications industry influencing the connected car?
• How are telecommunications and IT organizations taking their lessons learned into the connected car space? A new feature report from RCR Wireless News has just been released to take a deeper look into the activities by the these companies in order to help drive the connected car model to profitability.
Smart is where it’s at: smart cities, smart houses, smart cars, smart infrastructure, smart health and even smart pets (or at least trackable pets). The question is if and when the connected car will be able to talk to all of these other “smarts” surrounding it. Imagine driving through the city and you need a place to stay for the night or to find a parking spot – no problem, your car can handle it. What about your dog getting out (a major panic for most dog owners)? What if your car could find him and take you there? Your car and house are talking to make sure all is ready for your respective departure and arrival based on your personalized preferences. This happens today in isolation, but why not in an integrated fashion? Is the car really just an expensive giant smartphone driving around? While you may think this sounds like a crazy idea, Mercedes thinks it should be the case.
But what about the companies that participated in the latest report? The view was pretty consistent that all the following things will happen and the technology is there to enable them; what was inconsistent was the timeline for this functionality. According to the respondents:
- It will happen, but will take at least 5-10 years;
- Integration with e-health in case of an accident;
- Integration with car repair shops – self-maintaining cars that identify a problem and book a repair location;
- Share the topics of your daily routine among your tablet, wearable, smartphone, car and office;
- It’s already happening today.
Want to learn more about these topics? Watch RCR Wireless News’ driving profits through the intersection of telecommunications and automotive webinar on demand.
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Claudia Bacco, Managing Director – EMEA for RCR Wireless News, has spent her entire career in telecom, IT and security. Having experience as an operator, software and hardware vendor and as a well-known industry analyst, she has many opinions on the market. She’ll be sharing those opinions along with ongoing trend analysis for RCR Wireless News.
